I am not currently writing. I have other things in my life I must attend to with some urgency. I am hoping to get back to writing in 2019. I have some plans for a sequel to The Serpent in the Glass although I will finish the third and final part of Dreamwalkers before I start on that (it is 70% planned out and about 10% written).

Please do keep promoting my books! Every sale and review helps!

]]>http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=670My Random Acts of Kindness Journalhttp://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=63
http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=63#respondThu, 27 Oct 2016 21:24:34 +0000http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=63I would like to announce that I have published my first-ever journal. Hey, what can I say? I like to be diverse…

]]>http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=630The Serpent in the Glass – report on latest promotionhttp://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=51
http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=51#commentsTue, 12 Jan 2016 13:55:33 +0000http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=51Almost five years ago I self-published my first work of fiction, a middle-grade fantasy entitled The Serpent in the Glass. During the first year or two it had some great sale peaks, but for the last few years it has been declining to the point where, in December 2015, it only made 4 sales and 64 Kindle Edition Normalised Page Reads. I decided to give it a boost and put some serious time in to a promotion. So I applied to Bookbub, they accepted it and gave me a date of 3rd January 2016. I chose to run a free promotion rather than a discount in an effort to create a wider distribution (more downloads). I then submitted to as many sites that accept (often with no guarantee of running) notifications of promotions:

In the event it seems that most did run with it, and it was also picked up on other sites by virtue of being free or because it hit the free best-seller list on Amazon. I also paid $5 for an ad on bookgoodieskids.com. I also ran an Amazon author ad during this period. Author Andrea Pearson also kindly invited me to feature The Serpent in the Glass in her Middle-grade fiction promotion between the 4th and 7th of January.

The Bookbub ad on the 3rd generated about 9000 downloads on the day. Another 3000 or so downloads came over the next 4 days, how those 3000 were divided between late Bookbub readers, the sites that picked up on the book as it hit the best-seller listings, the submission sites, the MG promotion, and my own efforts, it is hard to say, though I suspect I may have the order correct.

At its high point on the morning of the 4th (I’m in the UK) The Serpent in the Glass hit #12 on the Amazon Top FREE 100. This declined to about #150 on the final day of the promotion and it dropped back into the paid rankings at just under #9000.

One of the consequences of the promotion was a healthy rise in those Kindle Edition Normalised Page Reads. That number currently – it being the 12th of January – is about equal to the total number of downloads. I’ve had 13 sales since the 8th, which is a lot better than 5 per month!

I also dropped $5 to bknights on Fiverr for a basic listing on the 8th, so this may have had some influence on sales.

Overall I spent around $100 (most of that being on the Bookbub ad). Stats for Amazon.com (as of this post)(as of end of January in bold):

The book remained in the top 30,000 om Amazon for some time, before dropping in the last 2-3 days of the month given it a rank of around #67000 by the close of January.

Other Amazon sites saw little activity, except for the UK one which saw 11 sales, 6163 reads, 963 downloads, and a rank of #42000 for the end of January.

]]>http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=5114Middle-Grade Promotion 4-7th January 2016http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=37
http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=37#respondSat, 02 Jan 2016 23:01:05 +0000http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=37The Serpent in the Glass (which is currently free on Kindle) is featured in a promotion organised by author Andrea Pearson. Let me turn the floor over to her…

“I’m excited about this promotion because it’s geared to one of my favorite audiences: middle-grade readers! I’ve always been passionate about books written for kids ages 9 through 12. Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Fablehaven, Diary of a Wimpy Kid… all excellent. I wrote The Key of Kilenya when my younger brother, Josh, who was 12 at the time, told me there weren’t enough books for him to read. He’d ripped through everything our local library had and was hungry for more.

I dedicate this promotion to him and to all other readers who love and are searching for books written for middle graders!

The Multi-Author Middle-Grade Book Promotion starts January 4, 2016 and ends January 7, 2016.”

When a malnourished horse shows up as a rescue at the farm where she volunteers, Jacinda, a bullied girl, takes it on as a project horse, and the mare’s sweet nature inspires her to spread kindness around to make a positive difference in the world.

When a savage pirate and a corrupt businessman join forces to steal the treasure for themselves, Christopher and his crew get caught up in pirate chases, time travel, and an underground network of spies!

The future looks bleak unless eighteen-year-old Lance and his young New Camelot Earth Warriors can save the planet from catastrophic climate change.

Enjoy your new books!

]]>http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=370Mind-bloggling & Happy New Yearhttp://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=24
http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=24#respondSat, 02 Jan 2016 17:42:48 +0000http://writers-and-publishers.com/blog/?p=24First of all, a Happy New Year! I’ve spent far too long this week trying to set up this WordPress blog. I find WordPress far from intuitive. I wonder if there’s a WordPress Lite for those of us whose brains clearly work very differently to those of the designers of this blogging software?

Hopefully by the time you read this I will have some of my books on display. I’ve focused on other things this last year or two but intend to re-focus on writing again in 2016. Please hold me to it